Faith and Farming

What do you see when you look out in the coun- tryside and see a farmer with a tractor in a field?

What comes to mind?

Do you recollect your grandfather plowing his fields to make ends meet and food for his family? Does it evoke images of someone with the tenacity to work long, hot, dirty days in the sunshine and rain? Do you imagine someone from bygone days still clinging to a past way of life?

Do you see an ignorant county bumpkin; who is not willing to learn another way of life? Does your mind’s eye conjure up images of a misguided person who is destroying the earth by planting crops year after year? Or do you see someone of great love, character and faith who cares for the land and animals that

God gave him.

That’s what I see:

To me farmers are people of great faith.

The definition for cultivation is to prepare and work on land in order to raise crops, to develop or improve, to promote growth or development, to devote oneself.

Some synonyms are to manage, prepare, tend, labor, work, to enrich, cherish, encourage, nourish, to have discipline.

And the definition of faith is the confidence or trust in a person or thing; belief not necessarily based on proof. And synonyms are: conviction, hope, assurance certainty, constancy, credit, dependence, fidelity, principle, communion, creed, profession, worship. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1 that “Faith is being

sure of what you hope for and certain of what you

cannot see”.

If I were going to create my definition of a farmer; it would be a person engaged in admirable work on the land that promotes the growth of life to supply and feed the present culture by enriching lives through Psalms 147 1, 8 - 9 and 14 It is good to sing praise to our God…He spreads clouds over the sky, provides rain for the earth and makes plants grow on the hills. Hi gives animals their food. He keeps you safe and satisfies you with the finest wheat. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Good News Bible Version Deuteronomy 28 1-6 If you obey the Lord your God and faithfully keep all His commands… He will make you great and all these blessings will be yours: The Lord will bless your towns and your fields. The Lord will bless you with… abundant crops, cattle and sheep. The Lord will bless your corn crops and the food you prepare from them. The Lord will bless everything you do. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Good News Bible Version encouragement and nourishment. With the discipline to tend and labor- day in and day out based on the assurance and conviction through the communion with nature and God that they will be able to sustain themselves, the earth and the community now and for years to come.

A farmer’s livelihood is ever dependent on things outside [his] control- weather, disease, pests, the market, equipment, etc.

And that’s what I’m learning about faith these days. Faith is the resilience to keep going and to believe that good things are going to happen, if you believe even when everything is seemingly outside your control.

I grew up with a ranching background and observed from my father the love of the land and respect for nature and it’s variabilities, but not until I began working with dry-land farmers did I really understand the faith that it takes to be a farmer. Year after year it seems like some contingency happens that makes the crop come extremely close to being failure.

Yet year after year the farmer goes back out and plants another crop with the hope that this could be the year of the bumper crop. The farmer doesn’t just do this to make a profit, they do it because they love the ground, the soil, the plants, nature, the sky, and humankind. We can’t survive without the farmer. If it was never evident to our highly industrialized society before, then it should be now with the evident tenuousness of our food-supply chain that COVID-19 brought before or eyes.

A farmer is a person of great faith.